If you are speaking of the Producer changing his mind in the middle of calling a replay...I had that happen a few times and quickly hit the "correct" macro button and was lucky enough to have it work.

"by having the slight delay of ME hitting the run button I have saved a few from themselves." I don't include the "run" button in the macro for just that reason.

I experimented with the delay issue quite a bit when the Clip Store hit the MTVG trucks. I ffinally setteld on a delay of six fields as the minimum amount of time needed for the Clip Store to recieve and respond to the P-Bus commands. I started with 1 field and worked my way up to six until I had no recall and run failures. The software in the Clip Store has become more reliable lately, but I have stayed with the six field delay out of laziness. Scott

With the DD35 I was told that the switcher could execute one step of a macro every field. (A macro with three steps, no pauses, would take three fields.) I could see a field not being enough time for the external devices not to be able to process things. Why not have step one, recall replay, then select VT, then run? With a SpotBox or Clipstore you still may need to add some delay. Now here is a personal observation, unless I work every day with a production crew I don't build macros that recall a VT and run the replay because some producers or directors really don't belong in their seats and by having the slight delay of ME hitting the run button I have saved a few from themselves.

If you are building Macros for each replay machine, do you need to put a delay between "recall of timeline" and "run"? I had an effect that did not cue the Clipstore before it ran the timeline...thoughts?

[quote="tv9director"]ME1 is still not functioning. I wondered why they didnt use the display backlight from ME1 to fix the backlight in me2...but I digresss. The HDX2 is the kalypso truck, and it isn't that bad. Everything seemed to work well, and the folks I worked with were cool. They use a clipstore MX for the elements...the only catch is the MX is slow to cue...not sure if anyone has run into that...[/quote] I agree with you ... they are so far ahead of where they were with the original HD-2 with HD-2X. With the macro ability of the Kalypso, not having 1 of the 4 MEs isn't that big of a deal, especially for the shows that I've done for them. And yes, the Clipstore is a bit slow to cue ... I've noticed that, as well. They are a good bunch of folks at HDNet, and their productions have really come a long way since their inception. I understand that the original trucks were basically designed to do side-by-side, taking an audio feed from the "home" truck, and supplying HD pics. I guess it didn't take long for them to grow out of that!

ME1 is still not functioning. I wondered why they didnt use the display backlight from ME1 to fix the backlight in me2...but I digresss. The HDX2 is the kalypso truck, and it isn't that bad. Everything seemed to work well, and the folks I worked with were cool. They use a clipstore MX for the elements...the only catch is the MX is slow to cue...not sure if anyone has run into that...

[quote="Dan Berger"]Last time I worked on the one with the Kalypso, probably when it was just new, they only purchased a 3ME switcher, not a 4ME switcher (although it was the 4ME panel). Did they upgrade it to 4ME's then it crashed? --- Dan[/quote] LOL! Maybe I first worked in that truck when they were "demoing" the 4th ME. :-) Matt

Last time I worked on the one with the Kalypso, probably when it was just new, they only purchased a 3ME switcher, not a 4ME switcher (although it was the 4ME panel). Did they upgrade it to 4ME's then it crashed? --- Dan

[quote="Scott Dailey"]They have two trucks. One straight truck with a Kayak. One expando with a Kalypso. The other original straight truck they had a a small incident with a fire extinguisher. apparently, electronics and dry chemicals don't plpay well together. Scott[/quote] Last time I worked for HDNet, their Kalypso had 1 ME that wasn't working ... not sure if they ever fixed it or not. Matt

They have two trucks. One straight truck with a Kayak. One expando with a Kalypso. The other original straight truck they had a a small incident with a fire extinguisher. apparently, electronics and dry chemicals don't plpay well together. Scott

just out of curiosity, what trucks do they usually use?

One of their trucks has a Kalypso. --- Dan

[quote="tv9director"]I have a show tomorrow for HDnet, and from what I have been told the TD that normally does the shows needs some time off. I am just filling in for one show. I will mostly be using the truck setup since this truck does the same show all the time. I am looking forward to having the time to work on this stuff, once I get to know the truck setup.[/quote] Good luck on the Kayak.

Dan, The Capper is a great idea. I will definatley be making that one. I have a show tomorrow for HDnet, and from what I have been told the TD that normally does the shows needs some time off. I am just filling in for one show. I will mostly be using the truck setup since this truck does the same show all the time. I am looking forward to having the time to work on this stuff, once I get to know the truck setup.

I worked on a parade where the Duet-op came from the local TV station, and they don't use Duet, so they couldn't use the animation they built to go behind every CG, so I had to supply that from a looping internal SS channel. So when I keyed the CG, I had to use 2 keyers. In addition, they wanted a FF light flare effect to wipe on the CG's. So I built a macro to: 1) call up the FF effect 2) change my trans rate to 30 (I, like Scott, have my trans rate set at 10 or 12) 3) select the 2 keyers needed for the CG, and wipe as my next transition 4) then delay (for the FF to cue) 4) run the FF (from a down stream timeline) 5) and hit wipe in ME3 6) another delay 7) reset my trans rate back to 10 8) select BG as the next transition 9) and recall another effect to be ready to effect to the next source Then a second macro would just lose the CG from the 2 keyers needed (no light flare needed). I then attached those 2 macros to the Utility 1 trans button, & Utility 2 trans button. So, to me, during a hectic parade with lots of directors, AD's, Producers, etc. (newsies) yelling in the truck, it was one button push to insert a CG, one to take it off, even though it was quite a complicated effect. Another macro I always set up in sports, is that during a roll-out to a commercial break, often the director will just yell out "CAP IT!" meaning an animated full screen graphic with a logo of sorts, sometimes called a stamp. Never know when those are coming, so I build a macro to CAP IT! and attach that to one of the SS control buttons that I never use. Just some examples of many macros I often use. --- Dan

In my opinion, the best way to learn to use macros is to build them. Start simple by having the macro do something you already do like add a font or hit the Cut or Auto Trans button. Macros on the Kalypso can call up emems, make selections in menus, or actually work similarly to a timeline. Figure out what works for you and begin using it and expanding on it when you get comfortable. One of my favorite macros wipe fonts on for me. For example, I like to have a 10 frame dissovle rate for my auto trans on all my ME's. However, I don't like to wipe fonts in with a 10 frame wipe. I prefer 20 or 25. I build it like this: 1) Record the macro 2) select the trans rate button on the ME 3) select the Auto trans button 4) enter 20 frames as your trans duration and hit enter 5) select wipe and Key 1 as your next transition 6) I like to insert a 2 field delay at this point 7) Hit the auto trans button 8) Insert a 21 frame delay 9) select Background and Mix as your next transition 10) Select Trans rate 11) select auto trans 12) enter 10 frames as the trans rate and hit enter 13) End recording I know a lot of guys that use this kind of macro.The macros takes care of all the dirty work for you. Plus you never forget to reselect Mix as your next transition. (aarghh! I hate it when I do that) Here is the what I like best about it. The macro doesn't care what is in keyer 1, or if it on or off, it just executes a wipe of keyer 1. I can punch font 1 or 2 or the score bug in there and wipe any of them on with 1 macro. However, I usually build a macro that does keyer 1, keyer 2, and a cross wipe between the two. (Most bugs animate on so I don't usually wipe them on) I also use a variation of this if the client has font reveal animations. My P-bus timeline is two keyframes. It calls up the effect and runs it. My macro timeiline simply hits the keyer 1 auto button at the appropriate time. Once again, the macro doesn't care what is in the keyer or if it is on or off. One timeline wipes the font on or off. If you ever have to do a dual feed, macros can make your life much easier, but that's another story for another time. Good night Goldilocks. Scott

One way to cut1 clean with a macro would be to have the first step turn ON the KEY DROP function for the ME you are working on, then select all the keyers for that ME, then turn KEY DROP off.

I have read a lot on the forums about macros and such, I have a few questions. Macros just remember a series of keystrokes or actions right? How would you build a "cut 1 clean" macro unless you know the prior status of your ME? What is an example of how you build an effect with a macro? How do you use the displays to show macros attachments? I guess being new and coming from the 3000/4000 switching world more than anything else...I am trying to get to know macros and how they can make my life easier. Thanks much...

You could create a macro for each replay machine, that assumes your replay is already recalled. Macro, puts replay machine into ME 2 or wherever and hits run. Waits 3 seconds or whatever and recalls emem for replay out move. Then another macro replay off, which basically just hits run and waits 3 seconds and then recalls replay on move. I would make pgm key 2 my macro row and turn pgm/pst source display to macros. In ME 3 I usually did a macro attach to cross between fonts, or cross between font and bug if that show required that. I usually attached to effects dissolve or one of the other buttons in that area. I think I may have even made one to dissolve on the font so I wouldn't have to reach 4 inches to the right, just above emem keypad.